The boat we were on was heading upstream along the Yellow River.
The water level was just right and the wind was blowing from the west, so we were making very good speed.
“We’re already almost at Mount Hua.”
“You’re right.”
At my words, Escort Guard Jin Yu nodded, then glanced back over his shoulder and said,
“It seems Escort Guard Myeong Jong is feeling a lot of emotions right now.”
I nodded at that.
Escort Guard Myeong Jong had been standing blankly for a while now, staring at Mount Hua growing larger in the distance.
There was a complicated look in those eyes.
They seemed full of longing, and maybe a bit of guilt as well…
I walked over to him.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah, yes, my lord. I’ve made a fool of myself.”
He hurriedly came to his senses and bowed his head.
“There’s an old saying that even a fox, when it’s about to die, lays its head toward the den it lived in. Mount Hua is the source of your martial arts and where so many of your memories are. How could you not miss it?”
“…Thank you for saying it like that.”
I turned my eyes to Mount Hua.
That place, turned pink by the profusion of blooming plum blossoms, was probably where the Mount Hua Sect was located.
“I’ve heard the Mount Hua Sect’s plum blossoms are truly beautiful.”
“Yes, they are.”
Escort Guard Myeong Jong nodded.
“When the blossoms open, the entire mountain fills with their deep fragrance. It’s a breathtaking sight.”
“I see.”
“So my senior brothers and juniors and I used to run through the groves, training by trying to catch the falling petals, but in truth it was a brutal exercise.”
“I’ll bet it was.”
“Honestly, I think I got too carried away at the last Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering without even realizing it. If I’d made it into the main tournament, I would’ve earned the right to become a Plum Blossom Swordmaster…”
Plum Blossom Swordmaster.
The title meant a swordsman who could make plum blossoms bloom with the sword, but it was also another name for the Mount Hua Sect’s elite.
“In the end, I was someone unworthy of that title.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It was nothing but bad luck.”
“…”
“Besides, you weren’t expelled from the sect, were you? One day you’ll be able to return to Mount Hua.”
I patted his shoulder to encourage him and looked back toward the mountain.
In my previous life, the Mount Hua Sect still had a famous name, but I always had the impression it could hardly exert any real power.
The swords of Mount Hua should’ve been something the martial world’s riffraff were terrified of.
Like that, the boat went upstream for several days, smooth and unimpeded against the current.
After we’d sailed past Mount Hua for who knows how long, the captain shouted to the crew,
“We’re going up now!”
“Aye, sir!”
The sailors hurried around the deck, giving advice to the passengers on board.
“The boat might start shaking quite a bit from here on out. So it’s best if you tie yourselves to a pillar or fasten yourselves down somehow.”
At that, someone objected.
“That’s awfully troublesome. Do we really have to go that far?”
“Well, if you get tossed off the boat, you’ll go straight to feeding the fish. Those beams strung between the pillars are all there to keep that from happening as much as possible.”
This boat bound for Nanju in Gansu Province definitely had a few special features compared to ordinary vessels.
First, they’d built an extra wooden railing all along the sides, like a fence on top of the original rail.
And in the middle of the boat, there were beams everywhere.
It made getting around on deck a bit inconvenient, but there was a reason for all of it.
From about the middle of Shanxi Province onward, going upstream along the river becomes extremely treacherous.
It’d be nice if there were a single continuous waterway from Shanxi to Nanju, but because of the terrain, there’s no river big enough for boats in that stretch.
The river continues north of Shanxi instead.
So we had to go up past Shanxi, head west, then come back down again.
Because of that, we had to take the boat through rapids squeezed between mountain ranges.
Even so, it was still far better than trying to cross the river itself. At this time of year, crossing these rapids is literally gambling with your life.
I quickly tied myself to one end of a rope fastened to a beam and called out to my companions.
“Doing exactly what the sailors say is the best option.”
At my words, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am nodded.
“My lord is right. This way is certainly faster, but just as dangerous.”
Hearing that, I asked,
“So you’ve taken this river route to Gansu before, Escort Guard Yeo?”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am nodded.
“Yes. I went once before on business.”
“I see.”
The truth was, the Eunhae Merchant Group also ran a branch in Gansu Province. It was small, but fairly important.
That was because Gansu’s Mount Yeonji was the main source of the rouge women used to color their lips.
My father had gone to Gansu for that very reason, and that’s where he met my mother.
But what the Emperor had asked of me this time was dangerous work, so I doubted I’d have a chance to visit either the Gansu branch or my mother’s family.
“The rapids are only going to get rougher from here!”
With the captain’s shout, the boat began to pitch violently up and down.
It shook so violently I wondered if riding on a dragon’s back would feel like this, yet somehow the boat didn’t capsize and kept forcing its way forward.
The problem was that we had to endure this for two, maybe three whole days.
With the boat tossing like this, anything like soup was out of the question. We had to make do with dry rations and jerky.
“Is this why you bought so much jerky, my lord?”
At Escort Guard Lee Pil’s question, I nodded.
“I heard a story about this from my older brother before.”
“Now that you mention it, the people from the escort bureau who went with us back then brought piles of jerky. I remember now.”
Our party at least had martial arts training, so we were holding up, but the ordinary passengers looked completely out of it.
If they hadn’t tied themselves down with ropes, they’d have been rolling all over the deck, if not thrown right off the boat by now.
Just then.
“Gasp!”
The child a father had been holding in his arms suddenly slipped free.
The shaking was so intense that his grip loosened for just an instant.
To make matters worse, the rope that had been tied around the child came undone as well.
The child had been tied down too, but whether the knot had become loose or the parents had tied it lightly from the start so it wouldn’t hurt, I couldn’t tell.
Losing balance, the child rolled across the deck, slipped right through the gap in the railing, and vanished into the water.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
“Oh no! My child!”
The child’s father and mother rushed to the rail to try to save him.
But the sailors stopped them at the side of the boat.
From the sailors’ point of view, they had no choice.
The living have to stay alive, and even if an ordinary person leapt into these rapids, they would never be able to save the child.
More likely, they’d die along with him.
By then, I was already moving.
I untied the rope holding me, shrugged off my cumbersome outer robe, and dove straight into the rapids.
Splash!
Even I wasn’t sure why I’d moved.
Maybe it was because the child’s eyes had met mine just before he fell in.
The rapids here were dangerous even for martial artists.
But I had learned a water technique from my master, the Ice Sea Water Severance Technique.
I was confident I could move freely in any current.
And with the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art, I could clearly sense everything in the water even with my eyes closed.
I had the ability to save a child who’d fallen into the river.
If I just watched the child die anyway, how would I be any different from the Baekcheon Merchant Group or the Murim Alliance that killed me in my previous life?
I spread my senses as far as I could.
“…!”
The moment I felt something, I swam straight toward it.
Thanks to the Ice Sea Water Severance Technique, I could move as safely as if I were in a calm lake, even amid the rushing current.
The current itself seemed to part and open a path for me.
Grab!
I grabbed the child and shot straight up toward the surface.
We’d ended up quite a distance from the boat, but I wasn’t particularly worried.
“Phew…”
I took a deep breath, then sprinted across the surface of the water.
It was a movement technique derived from the Ice Sea Water Severance Technique, an adaptation of No-Trace Step.
I caught up to the boat in no time and lightly leapt back onto the deck.
“Seungyeok!”
As I returned with the child in my arms, his parents rushed over.
But I held out a hand to stop them.
“Please wait just a moment.”
I laid the child down and began pressing the acupoint on his chest. I had to get his breathing back to normal.
Only after I did that—
Pwah!
“Cough, cough!”
The child spat out water and coughed roughly.
I gently patted his back and spoke to his parents.
“He’s fine now.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“How could we ever repay this favor?”
The boy’s parents kept bowing their heads to me over and over in thanks.
I waved a hand to calm them down.
“The current is still strong. Tie yourselves down securely so he doesn’t fall in again.”
“Y-yes! Of course!”
“We understand.”
Watching them firmly secure the child with rope, I let out a small sigh of relief.
“It’s really such a relief, it is.”
Palgap handed me a towel, and I wiped my face as I answered.
“Yeah. It really is a relief.”
“What I meant was, I’m more relieved that you came back in one piece, Young Master.”
“Ah…”
I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck. I couldn’t deny I’d acted rashly.
“We were worried too.”
At Escort Guard Seo Wu’s words, I offered a straightforward apology.
“I’m sorry.”
“We trusted that you would be alright, my lord, but we’d still appreciate at least a word beforehand.”
“I’ll do that from now on.”
“I’m not done yet, you know.”
“…”
Palgap’s nagging went on for hours, and I felt like my ears were about to start bleeding.
Roughly three days passed like that.
Then, as if the savage rapids had been a lie, the river became incredibly calm.
Only then did we untie ourselves and regain the freedom to move around the boat.
And once again, Seungyeok’s parents came over to thank me.
“Thank you so much for saving our son.”
“We’ve heard people call you the Handsome Young Hero. You truly live up to that name.”
While I was feeling embarrassed by that title, the child bowed his head to me.
“Thank you for saving me, pretty big brother.”
Cough.
Pr-pretty… big brother.
I should be happy about that, right?
Anyway, just being able to prevent a family’s tragedy made all the training I put into the Ice Sea Water Severance Technique worth it.
“By the way, do you have somewhere to stay once you arrive in Nanju?”
“We’re only passing through, so we were planning to stay at an inn.”
“I see. If it’s not presumptuous of me, would you consider staying at our home instead?”
At the boy’s father’s offer, I felt awkward. Right now, I had pursuers on my tail.
I couldn’t drag innocent people into that kind of danger.
“I appreciate the offer, but we have some circumstances, so we’ll have to move around busily as soon as we arrive in Nanju.”
“I understand.”
“Instead, if I ever get the chance later, I’ll be sure to visit.”
“Then please, you must visit our home someday. Our house is—”
I quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, you said his name was Seungyeok, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Seungyeok, how old are you?”
“I’m five.”
“I see! After going through something that scary, you’re still so brave!”
“Yes! Daddy said if I always live bravely, the world will help me.”
“That’s right. Keep living like that.”
While we were talking like that, the ship’s captain walked up to me.
“I’ve heard about you. You’re the Handsome Young Hero from the Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering, aren’t you?”
“It’s nothing but an empty reputation.”
“That’s not true. I saw with my own eyes today why you’re called the Handsome Young Hero. The fact that there was no fatal accident on my boat is entirely thanks to you, Young Hero.”
The captain continued.
“So, as a small token of my gratitude, I’d like to refund all of your passage fees.”
I quickly waved my hands.
“I can’t accept that. We’ve come all this way safely thanks to the captain and the crew’s hard work. The passage fee is the price for that—how could you refuse to take it?”
“But…”
“If you really feel you must repay me, then just help me once someday if fate brings us together again.”
“Will that really be enough?”
“You don’t know what I might ask you for later.”
“It doesn’t matter. Someone like you wouldn’t make an unreasonable request.”
Like that, the boat continued to glide calmly upstream, and before long we arrived in Nanju.
“Then, travel safely.”
“Yes, thank you for everything.”
We led our horses off the boat.
Horses are sensitive animals, so I’d been worried about their condition while the boat rose and fell on the rapids, but thankfully they seemed fine.
Even so, they looked a bit on edge from the unfamiliar surroundings, so it seemed best to let them rest.
So we spent the night at a nearby inn and set out early the next morning.
According to the sealed letter the Emperor had given me, Senior Bang Hyo-myeong was staying at a place about half a day from Nanju.
We headed for the Bang Family Manor, where Elder Bang Hyo-myeong was said to be.
It turned out to be a sizable manor.
“Where have you come from?”
At the gatekeeper’s question, I was about to introduce myself. But then—
“Wait! Aren’t you our benefactor?”
“…?”
From behind the gatekeeper, Seungyeok’s father—the man whose child I’d saved—came running over.
–TL Notes–
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